There's Something Odd About Leadworth
by cosettedaae
Summary: The Tenth Doctor goes to Leadworth investigating alien activity when he runs into a peculiar adolescent who mistakes him for someone else. The Doctor gives her relationship advice despite the fact he can't seem to follow it himself. Post "Runaway Bride."


It was a rough landing into a little, forgettable town in the English countryside. It felt like the TARDIS didn't want him to land there – as if the Doctor had had some prior encounter in this time and space which could mess up a few things, but he was sure he hadn't. Leadworth. He'd never even heard of the town before. Just the TARDIS being the TARDIS, he figured. Maybe she wasn't feeling well. Either way, had there been any sort of conflict she wouldn't have allowed him to land there at all. And he would've left knowing that himself, whether past or future, would fix it.

He parked the TARDIS hoping she'd have enough time to rest while he solved whatever was troubling Leadworth. There was some sort of unwanted energy there, energy that should've never gotten there but somehow was. It wasn't dangerous, it was just alien and alien can turn dangerous very quickly. The Doctor found himself in the centre of town in a park. There were few people about, families, the elderly and even a few teenagers were simply hanging out enjoying the rare English sunshine. "How am I supposed to scan the town with all these people around?" He attempted scanning the area a bit for alien matter but his screwdriver wasn't functioning properly. He slammed it against his thigh a couple of times, watched it spatter out a quick blue glow and then continue to not work. "Why is nothing working today?" The Doctor was feeling a bit frustrated. Recently his life had taken a turn for the not so fortunate and he was beginning to think this incarnation to be one of the unluckiest yet (aside for the one that wiped out his entire race, of course.) He'd recently lost a lovely blonde companion whom he, though he would never admit aloud, loved very much. Not to mention the horrid ordeal with the Arachnos. He figured working a bit in a small town would take his mind off some of the things gone wrong in London but to his dismay, things went wrong in small towns too.

He continued smacking his sonic screwdriver and glancing back at his TARDIS thinking that right then wouldn't be a bad chance to go back in the TARDIS and take a nice long nap before continuing saving the universe. When suddenly, a young girl tapped him on the shoulder and appeared before his eyes with a hopeful look gleaming on her face.

"What've you got in your hand?" she asked eagerly with a crisp Scottish accent. She must've been no older than fifteen and had hair redder than Donna Noble's.

"Oh it's," the Doctor quickly stashed it in his pocket. "Nothing. My toothbrush, actually." Toothbrush was the first human object the Doctor thought of that made enough sense.

"Oh, I – I'm so sorry. I thought you were someone else for a moment. You looked like him for behind, I guess. That was stupid – I'm sorry. Have a nice day, sir," she turned away and began muttering a bit to herself. "That was dumb, he looks nothing like him."

"Pardon me, miss," the Doctor turned around and directed himself at the redheaded adolescent. "But who did you think I was, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Just an old friend. He had similar brown pants and a thing that lit up blue. He's not you though – you look nothing alike." She smiled apologetically and the Doctor couldn't help but find it odd that there was a man this girl knew with his same pants and his same screwdriver.

"Is that so - what's your name?"

"Amy," she said it quite quickly and one had to be listening very closely to actually understand what she had said.

"Amy? Just Amy? That's a bit dull, don't you think? Don't you have anything else you go by?"

"Nope." Amy was lying; every day until very recently she had gone by Amelia – the fairytale name. Amy's aunt, only the day before, had called her "Amy" for the first time. When Amy corrected her with a polite "I prefer Amelia," her Aunt insisted she go by a more "grown up" name. "Amelia is so childish – it's so, how did you put it? Fairy tale. Like a little girl still waiting for her imaginary friend to return." This had struck Amy in a soft place. Her friend she'd met many years ago was still in her mind very much so real, even though the more people told her he was imaginary the harder it became for her to remember him as real. She'd been going through a phase, a phase she'd continue until the Doctor would come to sweep her off her feet, where she allowed people on the outside to believe that she'd finally outgrown her "imaginary friend" when on the inside, in a hidden secret space, she'd always know he was real. Which is why she went by Amy; Amy is what a normal girl would go by were she Christened "Amelia". At age fifteen, a normal girl was all Amy wanted people to think she was.

"Alright then, Amy. I'm the Doctor," the Doctor extended his palm, preparing to shake hands with the young redhead.

"No you're not!" she took a step back and looked at the man with near disgust. The Doctor felt both confused and concerned. "I'm sorry - you mean you _are_ a doctor."

"No, my name's the Doctor," the Doctor replaced his confusion for a cheeky smile and re-extended his palm, waiting for young Amy to shake it.

"Right, right. Plenty of people go by that name then, don't they?"

"In a sense," said the Doctor. Though he was thinking of his multiple incarnations and faces that had gone by that name – something she wouldn't know anything about.

"I'm sorry, I hope you don't mind me asking but… did someone put you up to this?"

The Doctor was now very seriously confused and his face did no attempt to hide this. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"You know, I'm so sorry. I'll leave you alone now. They ought to have locked me up when they had the chance – don't you think?" Amy began to walk away but the Doctor stopped her.

"Now, now what's this all about? I'm just a visitor passing through, I happen to go by the Doctor. Nothing odd, right? Do you happen to know someone else that goes by that name?"

"Yes," Amy said truthfully, though she wasn't sure why. She wanted people to think she'd changed, so why would she tell the truth to a man she'd never met before? Something about him made her want to trust him. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she felt like she could tell him everything and he would understand. She wouldn't tell him everything, though, and it was a good thing too.

"Amy, I assure you that whoever this man is has no relation to me. It's only a coincidence," the Doctor smiled hoping he'd convinced the young girl. She smiled in returned. He however had lied to her. At that moment, the Doctor knew exactly what was going on. Amy knew the Doctor from a future regeneration which is why he seemed so familiar to her and he had never seen her in his life. It also explained why the TARDIS had trouble landing and the malfunctioning of the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor figured he better leave Leadworth as quick as he can before he made any awkward encounters with himself. But before he left he needed to have a chat with Amy; the young girl who seemed so distraught and distant and somehow much older than her young fifteen years. She'd gone through much, he could tell, and although he didn't want to know all of it just yet (he'd find out eventually) he knew he had to do something to help her.

"Something's troubling you, isn't it Amy?" asked the Doctor, immediately changing his mood to a concerned fatherly tone.

"Many things," she admitted. "Some stuff I just need to push aside, I guess."

"No, it's never good to push your troubles aside." The Doctor, quite frankly, could have taken that advice for himself, but didn't. He'd been trying to push his yearning for his lost friend away for weeks now. But when you're someone like him, dwelling on the past is one of the worst things you can do.

Suddenly, from not far away called the voice of a teenaged boy sitting on a blanket in the grass. "Amy!" he called. "Amy, what're you doing?"

"Ugh," Amy rolled her eyes. "Just a minute Rory!" She hollered across the lawn. The Doctor got the sense that Amy wasn't a big fan of her friend, Rory.

"What's that all about? Boyfriend?" asked the Doctor, fearing he may be a bit nosey but not really caring.

"No. Not really. He asked me out the other day and I said no and now he won't leave me alone," Amy sighed. "I guess I need to go back with him."

The Doctor felt like he'd figured out one of the "many things" that was troubling Amy. "Do you like him back?"

"What? Well… that's not really your business, is it?" Amy didn't really feel offended, just annoyed in general. "I thought I did but I don't want to date him. When we break up we won't be friends anymore. And he's been one of my only friends for as long as I can remember."

"Maybe you won't break up."

"Doctor, you and I both know that that's not going to happen. I'm not going to _marry _Rory! Could you imagine? _Amy Williams?_ That's not happening." Amy's thoughts drifted off as if she were thinking of the huge possibility that she might actually marry Rory, with scarcely any one else in the whole world available for her. Amy always sort of hoped that she'd get to live with the Doctor, her Doctor, for the rest of her life but with no signs of him returning she'd considered Rory as a second choice. But when it actually came down to it, Amy became nervous and shy and recently found it hard to spend time with her best friend.

"I'll give you my advice. With a few years under my belt you may be able to assume that some of what I say might be helpful, but I wouldn't count on it. If you love someone, not that you should love anyone other than mum and dad at your age, you should tell them as soon and as often as you can. If not, they may never know, and you'll find yourself having to leave without ever telling them how much you cared, loved or appreciated them." The Doctor felt a wave of sadness wash over him but had to repress it for now. Visions of Rose filled his head. What he wouldn't give to have the opportunity to say he loved her.

"I don't love Rory, Doctor."

"But you like him, right? And you care for him and you don't want to lose him, right?"

"Right."

"Then you should probably go tell him," the Doctor said, solemn still but happy he could help the young teenage couple. Amy smiled and left the Doctor's side to rejoin Rory. The Doctor watched silently as Amy said something to Rory as he lounged, motionlessly on the lawn. Suddenly, Rory leaped from his position and enveloped Amy in a loving hug and kissed her. The Doctor smiled. He didn't save Leadworth from a potential alien invasion, but he had united two kids who, without a doubt, loved each other very much.

Amy managed to break free from Rory's hug and stood in slight disbelief for a moment that she had just gotten her first kiss and boyfriend in the same ten seconds and both were from Rory Williams. She looked around frantically for the man, the Doctor, who had helped unite the two but couldn't find him. Had he left so quickly? Was he another "imaginary" Doctor?

As she went back in for another kiss from Rory, she could've sworn, out of the corner of her eye, that she spotted the big blue box that the mad man had left her in all those years ago. She broke free from Rory but saw no such box. "I saw it," she muttered. "That was the Doctor."

"Amy, the Doctor's not-" Amy placed her finger over her boyfriend's lips. She didn't want to hear it because she knew it was false. The Doctor was real and she'd just talked to him.


End file.
